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Sunday, February 22, 2015

I can't believe it, today marks our 100th Much Ado About Monday link party!! What a long way we've come from our first party garnering only 33 link ups to now having over 300 every party. We can't thank you enough because obviously, these parties are impossible without you!

This past week was pretty slow on the post front for us. The tummy bug has been running rampant here and unfortunately it hit my family pretty hard. Today is starting to feel like we are on the mend so fingers crossed there is no residual sickness lingering..

Lucky for us, you all shared so many great posts that our lack of craftiness was made up for ;). Our favourites this week were:

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Welcome back to Much Ado About Monday. We hope you had a fantastic Valentines Day. I spent the day with my hubby and girls and it was wonderful. We started the morning out with some ice skating and then went straight from the rink to the lake. It's a ton of fun getting to do winter and summer activities all in the same day! And being out on the boat in February is awesome! After a long day of activity we all cuddled up on the couch together and had a family movie night. Definitely the perfect way to spend Valentines. :)

And tonight, for those of you who have eagerly anticipated the 50 Shades of Gray movie... you know that it premiered just a few days ago... So , Jill, Lydia and I are off to see if the movie lives up to the hype. It should be interesting if nothing else. :)

Valentines was the theme this week as Jill shared her recipe for an absolutely delicious Cherry Limeade and I shared a quick tutorial on how to make this super cute Valentine's Day Cupid Heart Wreath. If you didn't get a chance to check them out, please do!! :)

Your posts this week were also fantastic. As always you guys made it extremely difficult to pick our favourites, but here is what we came up with:

Friday, February 13, 2015

Happy almost Valentine's Day friends!! I finally got all of my Valentine's decorations up at the beginning of the week and I decided I needed another wreath to fill a spot on one of my walls. I made a fun Valentine's ribbon wrapped wreath last year, but you can never have enough wreaths hanging around, am I right?

I had seen a cute Cupid's arrow and heart style wreath at JoAnn's about a month ago and decided that instead of paying the $29.99 they wanted for it, I could make my own for a heck of a lot less. And I'm so happy I did. It is so cute and the perfect addition to my Valentine's decor.

Can't Get Started Without:~heart shaped foam wreath~spool of jute~red fabric (I used a thick velvet scrap I had, but anything would work, even felt)~1/4" dowel~black felt~needle and thread to match your red fabric~fiberfill stuffing~glue gun~glue stick~scissors~pen

To get started, I figured out where I wanted my dowel to go through my foam heart, and marked it with a pen. Then using that same pen, I made holes in each side of the heart.

Once I had my dowel holes made I started on the task of wrapping and gluing the jute around my foam heart. It was a bit tedious, but didn't take nearly as long I thought it would. :) When I got to the dowel holes, I kind of weaved my jute back and forth around them until I could just wrap normally again. It actually worked pretty good, not perfect, but A-OK in my books. ;)

Once my whole heart was wrapped, I placed my dowel and measured and marked how long it needed to be. Then I got my hubs to cut it for me.

Next it was time to make my heart shaped arrow head. First, I cut out two identical hearts from my fabric. I then hand stitched them together, leaving a big enough hole to put the fiberfill in.

After my heart was stuffed, I stitched the heart up a bit more leaving a hole just big enough to fit the dowel.

Almost done!!

The last step was to make and place my arrow feathers. I just drew up a template and cut out six feathers.

I then cut fringe in the top of each feather.

I wanted the feathers to be stiff enough that they didn't flop over so I glued two together, leaving me with three feathers. I then glued them on the end of my dowel and my Cupid's Heart Wreath was complete.

So pretty! :)

To hang your wreath, you could either tie a ribbon around the top of the heart, or punch a hole in the back of the heart. I chose to make a hole in the back of the heart as I wanted it to just 'be' on the wall instead of hang on the wall.

I love how cute and simple this wreath was. I'm definitely glad I decided to make one!

Thursday, February 12, 2015

With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I thought I'd share our family's favorite pink drink recipe. It's simple to whip up, and better than the trip to a certain fast food joint to grab one of these (and some unwanted extras). I've fine tuned the recipe to be easy on the grenadine, with the fresh squeezed lime juice adding the perfect tang.

This recipe makes a small pitcher worth, perfect for our family of 5, with some to spare. It could easily be doubled for a party with a two liter of soda. And I'm thinking of spiking mine with some flavored vodka for those long days ;-) Enjoy!Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!!

Sunday, February 8, 2015

We love partying with you guys and seeing all of the amazing, crafts, recipes and tips that you share with us every week. We just want to thank you all for the great support. The last month have seen some of our biggest parties to date, which would not be possible without all of you! Hugs and love from all of us. :)

This last week we had some great posts. Lydia shared her projects from Week 3 & 4 of Project 52, which were a super cute pillow and even cuter crib rail bumpers for her sisters baby girl due in March. While Jill, shared a fun round-up of 10 Valentines boxes. If you didn't get the opportunity to check them out, we'd love for you to do so!

Your posts this week were also fantastic. As always you guys made it extremely difficult to pick our
favourites, but here is what we came up with:

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Hey guys! My Project 52 is coming along nicely. I have managed to keep my resolution thus far and am posting my projects as I finish them on the Project 52 Facebook page {I would love it if you would join me there!}.

I wanted to share with you the projects that I've finished so far!

For week 3, I made a pillow case with an invisible zipper. I have had this pillow cut out for about half a year and am just now getting around to sewing it up. That's slightly embarrassing. It's crazy how many projects I've started and haven't finished. So, if nothing else, my craft room will cleaned of all the half-finished items laying around once Project 52 is over!

The project for week 4 was designing, making the pattern for, and sewing up crib rail bumpers for my sister's sweet baby girl, who is arriving in March. Instead of traditional bumpers, she wanted crib rail bumpers but she couldn't find a pattern that she liked. So, we made up our own!

{This picture is one of the side bumpers being modeled on my daughter's crib. We had to model it on the front because my sister's crib is a bit bigger than mine and it wouldn't fit exactly.}

We attached the bumpers to the crib by making our own loops and ribbons.

For an extra bit of sparkle, we edged the bumpers with gold piping and it looks amazing! I wasn't sure if it would be worth the effort {or if it would be noticeable} but it adds so much to the bumpers and I am so glad we decided to use them! We also used contrasting fabric to make a ruffle along the bottom edge and added a bit of girly-girl by also using pleated lace, which I LOVE. It turned out so cute!

We backed the bumpers with padded quilted fabric and added an additional layer of cotton batting to make them even softer for that sweet baby head.

We are all thrilled with how the bumpers turned out and I plan on posting a tutorial, so if you would like to make your own, keep your eyes out for that post!
I am loving this resolution so far and am so glad that I have a little bit of a push to get me sewing every week!